At school I would ask the teachers to stock the library with all manner of entrepreneur-type magazines and books, and you could often find me voraciously reading them, pausing only occasionally to stare out of the window and daydream about what it must be like to be your own boss.

Well, when fortune forced me to pull a sad face 8 weeks ago, those dreams started to become a reality as I realised now was the time to make them real.

The reaction to me leaving my seven-year role at Microsoft was overwhelming. Literally hundreds of people emailed or commented either wishing me well, or wanting to talk about possible new jobs or business partnerships.

To everyone who contacted me, I’d like to thank you very much again. The words of encouragement were the well-needed boost to the inkling that now was the time to set up on my own. I thought long and hard about the positions I was asked to try out for, and am grateful for the time people took to uncover potential roles for me.

After many discussions with my wife and family, coupled with the wise counsel of some of my closest industry friends, Delightful Communications was born.

The consultancy builds on the three areas I had the most success with during my time at Microsoft:

I’m also thrilled to be getting into the “Big Data” space by taking on a part-time role as “US Ambassador at Large” for Majestic SEO. I’ve been watching their impressive development, and the strides my friend Dixon Jones has been making in the industry for the last few years. I am looking forward to learning from the team, and helping them reach more people throughout the US who are in need of the wealth of actionable information their platform holds.

As I said eight weeks ago, my time at Microsoft was an incredible experience. I spent seven years working with some of the smartest and most astute minds in technology and advertising, and I’m sure our paths will cross again over the next seven.

Sohu.cn in China has the largest combined search, social and entertainment portals in the world. With over 505 million internet users – more than the entire population of the USA – Sohu contains many of the world’s most populated sites.

Zhang Minhui managed Sohu’s brand advertising and commercial content across its digital platforms during the key years of growth from 2002-2010, which makes him one of the most influential pioneers of digital.

Minhui negotiated how marketing would work through search, social, gaming, mobile, news and interactive media. Where Sohu created the formats, Minhui made it commercial.

A chapter profiling Zhang and Sohu also traces the four key periods in China’s recent and groundbreaking digital history.

Pioneers of Digital launches in October – pre-order your copy now by visiting Buy Pioneers of Digital Book and check back soon for the next ‘reveal’.

PS: If you liked this snippet from the book, please share it with your friends and followers using the buttons below and help us spread the word!

A trail-blazer in the very important but often misunderstood (and underutilized) area of digital – Search Engine Marketing – Danny fell into journalism and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) through a burning passion to “understand things” by taking those things apart and reassembling them, helping anyone keen to learn from him understand the essence of whatever “it” was in a much more accessible way.

The chapter charts from 1996 the inception and success of his former brainchild Search Engine Watch, how he launched some of the best attended digital conferences in the world, what happened when he invited a representative from Yahoo! to attend the first one in 1999, what he does with his Lego, and his mantra for success in a fast-paced industry like online advertising and internet marketing.

The book launches soon, so pre-order your copy now by visiting this page: Buy Pioneers of Digital Book and check back soon for number four out of our twenty digital pioneers.

Today, we’re pleased to say Jess Greenwood, formerly from Contagious Magazine and now at R/GA, also agreed to be interviewed about her fantastic work at the London-based magazine and the growth of the publication and off-shoot divisions as “must go to” sources of industry creative inspiration and trends.

During a career that has had many twists and turns, Greenwood first became aware of the power of digital through a BBC comedy and the online community that grew up around it.

In her chapter, we’ll tell you what that show was, give you her sound advice for measuring the effectiveness of advertising online, and let you have some strong pointers as to what personal traits are needed to get into and survive in the industry.

As we promised last week, from now until the book’s launch, we’ll be giving you a more detailed sneak peek into the Pioneers of Digital we chose to profile and why their contributions to digital have been so important.

One of the best presenters in the business, Avinash has inspired thousands of marketers around the world to grasp the “magnificent opportunity” we all have to succeed in our business goals through digital.

In the chapter about him we reveal his colourful career journey from a tiny town in India, via the Middle East to Mountain View and his current role at Google, documenting more than a few hair-raising & “ah-ha” moments along the way!

We thank Avinash and Google for letting us tell his story. You’ll enjoy reading it we promise!

With a little over two months before the book launches in the UK and three before US readers can get their hands on it, we’ve been busy working with the fabulous team at Bronco to update the Pioneers of Digital website and start answering the question we’ve been getting everywhere we go: Who exactly are these Pioneers?

If you click through to the homepage, we’ve added a gallery where you can get a sneak peak as to who we’ve picked to tell their inspiring stories.

Between now and the 3rd of October when the physical book is released, we’ll be showcasing each Pioneer one-by-one on our blog, giving you a bit more insight into their background and including an exclusive fact or word of wisdom we gleaned from our interviews with them.

In order to make the launch as successful as possible, it’d really help if you could pre-order the book and encourage your friends to do the same. It will be coming out on the Kindle, but we understand that option won’t go live until early September.

So please click on the button above to get your copy from your favourite retailer, please share this post either by email or by using the social media buttons, and know that we’re very, very grateful for your support.

We can source discounted copies of the book for bulk buys from Kogan Page, so please Contact Us if that’s something you’d like to do!

Check back soon for the first deep-dive in our series about the Pioneers and have a great week.

7 years (2555 days) to the day after I walked into Microsoft in London to help launch adCenter back in 2005, I was told this morning that my role has been “eliminated” in a round of lay offs.

I’ve been told by HR that it’s fine to talk about my new job search on social networks and my blog as the termination has nothing to do with my performance in the job. So as a true social media aficionado, I’m letting you all know that while I’m sad it’s come to this after creating millions of engagements online, writing thousands of blog posts, interviewing hundreds of industry luminaries and speaking at many, many conferences around the world, I have nothing but fantastic memories of working at Microsoft Advertising – 50 of which I’ll write about and publish here in the next couple of weeks.

I’d like to thank all the fabulous colleagues, partners and friends in the industry I’ve met and worked with over the years. It’s been a blast and I can’t wait to see what turns up for me (and you all) next.

Lastly, thanks to my wife Ashley for her amazing support throughout the years. Her positiveness, drive and enthusiasm for all the work I’ve created over the years has been an inspiration and really kept me going.